RSC The School for Scandal review - Impressive surface but little substance on Stratford stage

​In these days, when a post on social media can make or break you, Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 18th century satire, The School For Scandal, about image and social status and scandal, could offer some valuable lessons.

The RSC’s new production in Stratford, directed by Tinuke Craig, is big, bold and pink – very pink. As in Sheridan’s day, it sets out to expose, ridicule but ultimately to celebrate the incessant gossip and malicious intrigue of the privileged few at the top of society. They look gorgeous on stage in flamboyant wigs and elaborate costumes, full of colour and humour, but underneath they are, for the most part, venal, waspish, anxious and ferociously competitive.

Such superficiality can be hard to sustain with interest on stage without a considerable input of energy, and at two and a half hours this show seems to stretch tolerance a little. With more than a nod to Bridgerton, much depends upon spectacle, of which there is a great deal. But the TV series trumps the original drama by a mile, mainly because in that we have a central character about whom we care. I found it hard to find anyone to care as much about. Instead, I found much to admire and respect, mainly for looks and performance. For undoubtedly it is a spectacular show, whose theatricality is never in doubt. But where is the depth?

The plot is complicated in its detail, but simple enough in its premise. Lady Sneerwell (Siubhan Harrison) presides over an aristocratic community whose only interest seems to be destroying each other’s reputations. A rumour here, a comment there are the weapons of choice. Truth is a concept alien enough to make Sneerwell’s sidekick, Snake (Tadeo Martinez) literally gag at the mention of it. For pleasure, it seems, Sneerwell targets the deliciously decadent Charles Surface (John Leader), who with his brother, the more sensible Joseph (Stefan Adegbola) is in line to inherit his uncle Sir Oliver Surface’s (Wil Johnson) fortune. Sir Oliver returns from the East Indies in order to test his nephews to see which, if either, is the more honourable and thus worthy of his money. There follows a series of tangled subplots concerning affairs and morals both real and fake. At the heart of all their connivances is sex, or the promise of it, and the desire for money.

There is no question the show is a delight to behold. There are some memorable, over-the-top characters, not least for me the deliciously poisonous Sir Benjamin Backbite (Patrick Walsh McBride) and Lady Sneerwell herself, in a costume so broad she has to walk sideways to pass through any door. Charles Surface looks gorgeous in a pink basque. Even the floor is smoothly deceptive, deploying a series of trapdoors which lift and swallow characters on and off stage, like a machine from hell, just beneath the surface.

Rumour has a way of creating its own momentum, but what was mere gossip, albeit deadly at close range, is now state sponsored terrorism, affecting millions. The School For Scandal presages some of today’s concerns but doesn’t really enlighten or expose them.

School for Scandal runs on various dates until September 6.

Visit rsc.org.uk or call 01789 331111 to book.